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Thursday, March 31, 2005

Irony.

This case has been heartbreaking and tragic enough," Kennedy said. "It is time for mourning and healing, not for more inflammatory rhetoric, and responsible national leaders should understand that and stop this exploitation."

Isn't ironic Kennedy the king of inflammatory rhetoric now wants it to stop?

Pew! That Stinks!

Not too long ago I was hearing bits of sound about a scam the The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was involved in.

So today I did a little googling and link-hopping and found this NY Post Story. It talks about a confession of Sean Treglia at a conference essentially describing how they scammed everyone into believing there was this large movement for Campaign Finance Reform. Nope, it was a bunch of front organizations and false noise.

I think anyone paying attention noticed that CFR was hardly on the top of the list of concerns. In fact I would say campaign finance reform barely makes the bottom of the list if at all!

Scary!

The ailing Pontiff sharply narrowed Catholic guidelines for treating patients nearing death in March 2004 when he described tube-feeding as a normal treatment rather than an extraordinary measure that can be stopped if all hope of recovery fades.

So the headline makes it look like the pope wants the tube pulled but in reality he does not (and the story eventually gets around to that). This is doubly so now feeding tubes are now considered to be extraordinary measures.

Last night on a story about the Pope getting this tube in a fit of sarcasm I shouted "Pull the tube! Pull the tube! Starve him! Starve him!" Claudia did not get nor try to get it. I will have to point this story out as this is exactly what it is doing!

Yet Another Terror Arrest in the Filipines.

A Palestinian man was arrested in the Filipines. He stands accused of training Abu Sayyaf in the terrible art of terror and of getting ready to carry out a terror attack.

First off one thing needs to be understood about the Filipines. Probably the Filipines biggest source of income is ex-patriate labor aka overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), or overseas contract workers (OCWs) and Arabia is a large employer of Filipino nurses, maids, engineers, laborers, and workers. Many of these Filipinos marry or otherwise associate with the local population and in fact driving around Manila it is not uncommon to see jeepneys decorated with Arabesque themes and artwork. So the presence of Arabs in the Filipines should not necessarily be viewed with suspicion.

He was later allegedly identified by captured Abu Sayyaf guerrillas as one of the foreign militants who trained them in bomb-making near Patikul town of Jolo island a few years ago, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

I do not buy the official story here. They knew this guy was coming and were waiting for him. This man was not thinking the immigration official he was going to deal with cared about visas or would have forgotten about it for the right price. He thought their guy would be at immigration and would let him through.

The Filipino authorities recently arrested a man coming over from Malaysia with Jemmah Islamiya ties and I bet their interrogation of this man and others revealed the Palestinian coming and for what reasons.

THE NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has been tasked by the Department of Justice to monitor returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reportedly "contaminated" by the terrorist mentality.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said they would coordinate with the Bureau of Immigration in overseeing Philippine ports of entry to look out for possible terrorists.

In the directive issued Wednesday, BI and NBI officials were ordered to monitor the entry of OFWs coming from the Middle East especially from Saudi Arabia.

This is a wise precaution. I knew of some Filipinos in the UAE who had converted to Islam. For some it was essentially convert or lose your job, for others it was pressure from those around, for a couple it was for genuine reasons, and for one guy it was because he was fooling around and he had to convert to get around the one wife rule of Christianity problem. None of the converts I knew (one who was a student at the UAEU I believe was a Muslim his entire life) seemed to be at all dangerous or radical, as I said most had converted for petty/superficial reasons.

UPDATEFrom my recollection it is possible to recieve a visa at the immigration control for a limited stay. But this doesn't change anything, they Filipino Authorities knew this guy was coming and were waiting for him. A high-five goes to the Filipino Authorities in this case!

A HTML bleg.

This is the style I have defined for quoting.quote {font-family: Times; font-style: italic; padding: 30px 50px 30px 50px;}

Unfortunately it does not render like I want it to. It acts as an indent.

It turns this line intothis and I want all lines indented.

____It turns this line intothis and I want all lines indented.

The reference I have says this is an indent style, whereas I should want a margin. Experimentation on my home web system also confirms that the code I have above should work but it doesn't over blogger. What am I doing wrong?

Terri Is Dead.

Terri Schiavo (search) died Thursday morning around 10 a.m. EST after her parents had plead with her husband Michael Schiavo to allow them to be at their brain-damaged daughter's bedside in her final hours, a spokesman for the family said.

Today I am going to talk about why you must worry about computer security.

You say you are a low-level person in society, you don't have the nuclear missile launch codes so why worry about computer security. There are many reasons the most obvious being identity theft concerns and keeping your private data private. Another reason DOES HAVE TO DO WITH NATIONAL SECURITY!.

Blogger botched up and I lost about 15 minutes worth of writing.

Choose good passwords or become a Jihadi file depository and transfer point!

A Point from Fox and Friends.

Fox and Friends talked with a reverend of some sort this morning. He made the point the Terri Schiavo fight is NOT a case of left vs. right. He noted the senate passed Terri's bill WITHOUT ANY DISSENT!. This means Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of the Democrats approved the bill. Why then does Tom DeLay get all the heat he is getting?

Don't forget Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson are fighting for Terri's life as well!

The court gave the Schindlers a glimmer of hope because Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr. wanted to scold politicians. He wrote,

In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people our Constitution.

Oh please! Maybe Congress and the President overstepped their constitutional bounds, and maybe they didn't. Since Judge Birch didn't feel the need to declare the late night, emergency legislation unconstitutional that question is up for grabs. As Captain Ed puts it, "Talk about judicial arrogance!" And at a grieving family's expense.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.Section. 2.

Clause 1: The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a State and Citizens of another State; (See Note 10)--between Citizens of different States, --between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

Clause 2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

Clause 3: The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Sunshine in the Valley.

At least theoretically!

Good Morning!

I left out one thing from last night's The Last Bit and that was the combination of skiing , The Homestead of Happiness, the Chilli Dog of Contentment, and the Pitcher of Pleasantness would have me purring if I could purr.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

The Last Bit.

Tonight's Last Bit comes early for many reasons.

As you may know one thing I like to do is to downhill-ski. It makes winter go so fast! When I was young and did not ski I would start getting fishing magazines and catalogs in February and it made the winter drag on soooooo long. Now it just flies. I embrace the winter and love it! Were it not for heating and driving on slippery roads I would like it even more!

The hill I ski at most is Ski Brule because my father's cabin is only about 25 or so minutes away. As far as the hill goes it is probably a mid-sized hill by Wisconsin, and Michigan (and Minnesota) standards; nothing in comparison to the hills out west or east. It is what we have.

At about 1:00pm or so we usually head in for sustenance. The place we head into is The Homestead Lodge which is about halfway down the hill on the backside. It is a building cobbled together from old homestead buildings and is very rustic. Imagine, it is a cold January day, it is grey with light lake effect snow falling. You walk into an old log cabin with potbelly stoves. What music do you expect playing?

Bluegrass

Pop

Country and Western

Raggae

Classical

None of the above

scroll down for the answer.

If you chose #4 you were right! Raggae. Ski Brule hires a crew from Jamaica to come up and help run the hill. They work both inside and outside a friendly crew that brings a smile. We have become on very cordial terms with one or two of them. Rala runs the Homestead and she is a very outgoing person.

The Homestead of Happiness!

One spring two-three years ago Barnabas and I were skiing and we stopped in. It was in spring and the sun was out so it was warm and we sat and had our sustenance on the deck. A woman came out and saw us and said: "Chilli dogs and a pitcher of beer! Happy guys!", indeed! The chilli dogs at Brule are good and filling.

The Chilli Dog of Contentment!

Yes, we order beer when at the Homestead of Happiness. The beer of choice is Gilligan's Red (aka Killian's Red) a beer that has some flavor to it at least it is the most flavorful available to us at the Homestead of Happiness. If there are two we have just one pitcher, if there are three to four of us then it is two pitchers.

My father awaiting his share from the Pitcher of Pleasantness! Good job on the pour Rala!

The 8th Congressional District Race.

Is not officially on yet, you may be aware it is pending an announcement from Mark Green and his future plans.

So this blog assumes he will announce his intentions to run for Governor of Wisconsin. Is that the future? I don't know only Mark does at the moment.

You all know who I support and this blog is not to plug that person but to report to you dear readers, who is running. So if the candidate I am supporting reads this please be assured I am with you because I am going to state an opinion which may not be considered encouraging.

Rumors have about four people running people running to replace Mark Green.

The Rumored Candidates for the Republican Nomination to run for the 8th Congressional District of Wisconsin are:

John Gard.

Paul Jadin

Steve Wieckert

Terri McCormick

Unless you are from the area three of the four may be unknown to you. Paul Jadin is the former mayor of Green Bay, Steve Wieckert is 57th assembly district representative, and Terri represents Wisconsin's 56th assembly district. John Gard as many know represents Wisconsin 89th assembly district and is the speaker of the assembly.

The following is based on no more than rumor and rank speculation! John Gard is the clear favorite in this race. The key to winning this race is winning Green Bay and while many may say Paul Jadin also will run well in Green Bay I think John Gard's notoriety and the fact his district is not too far from Green Bay will do much to help his cause in Green Bay. In fact a rumor I have picked up indicates Paul Jadin may switch party affiliations to run for the seat. This is a clever move on his part and would certainly get him past the primary race.

Is the rumor credible? I give it a fair amount of credence and I am sure the Democrats are courting him hard as he would be the most serious candidate they have ever had in the race for years and years.

How about the pair from Appleton? They do not have the built in notoriety so it will be an effort on their part but it is doable. Both candidates are very personable and charismatic and I know Terri has some good endorsements from local political leaders. They will have to count on their bases of support from Appleton and the upstate vote (which they will have to fight Gard for), and do better than one would expect in Green Bay. It can be done but they are going to have to have a good team and network like crazy in Green Bay.

If I were going to place money on the primary and general races this is how I would do it.

GOP

John Gard

Steve Wieckert

Terri McCormick

Dems

Paul Jadin

John Gard vs. Paul Jadin: Winner John Gard.

As readers know I am hoping for a slightly different outcome and I will work to help achieve that outcome!

Hugh's criticism is spot on. There have been many not only one the left but also supposedly on the right who complain about the influence of Christians on the conservative movement. We have to deal with this in Wisconsin and I recall sometime ago my county party getting a letter from a Assemblyman on the fringe of our geographical area complaining how the OCRP was being taken over by such types.

Quite a few of the Conservative Wisconsin blogs grow tired of what they consider to be RINOs having more influence on state policy than what they deserve. They point to the demise of Mary Panzer as an example of RINOs and what happens to them. Owen at Boots and Sabers highlights some complaints in the Wisconsin Blogosphere. It is these same RINO types that are ruining the chances of getting good reform done in Wisconsin.

Those in the "center" or those who consider themselves "moderate" are often times veterans from before the Reagan Revolution and instinctively act as though being conservative is not acceptable in polite society. In their formative years this was true but it is no longer true. Quite being wishy-washy and stand up for what the Republican Party is about!

To those who want to quite the Wisconsin GOP due to the RINOs I say the following. What influence within the party do you thing that will earn? The people who volunteer and contribute are the people who get listened to. I also say this sounds like so much of "are we there yet?" No we are not, but this is the direction in which we are headed and if you jump off the trip now you will be left behind. Yes, Mary Panzer was defeated and another RINO assumed her position, guess what? One less RINO! I call that progress!

Computer Security and You! Part I.

What? You don't need computer security, the codes to launch our missiles are not located on your PC?

Rubbish. You need security. What do you have on your PC? Passwords to all of your online accounts, some of them bank and credit card accounts? How about tax returns? How about pictures of your children? How about other sensitive personal information? How about disk space? CPU power? You bet you do!

The Michelle Malkin blog on P2P inspired this missive on computer security. She has been noting that P2P while making it easy to share files with others on the Internet also if improperly secured can allow others to snoop through your personal files, file you do not intend to share with others. There have been examples (real live ones) of people's tax returns being obtained via insecure P2P setups and published on the Internet.

The Basics of the Internet

When you make a connection to the Internet your PC is assigned what is called an IP address which is unique. All computers on the Internet have an IP address. A person rarely refers to these IP addresses instead we refer to other computers with the familiar domain name. Fro example www.a_webserver.com, that address www.a_webswerver.com has its own unique IP address which is probably fixed and does not change.

Those who dial up get a new IP address each time the dial into the Internet (though they may get the same address by chance it is not guaranteed). How about cable modem users or DSL (both hereafter referred to as broadband)? Depends sometimes (if you pay enough) you get an IP address that is assigned specifically to you this is referred to as a static IP otherwise you get a dynamic IP. If you have broadband with a dynamic IP then there is the concept of the lease.

The lease is the amount of time you have a given IP address. Essentially you make a connection to the internet, your computer asks the ISP provider for an address and your computer gets it. You do your work and then you get up from the PC and go to bed. The lease is a term that our PC can have the IP address without it being used and varies from provider to provider. So you are not using your PC but your PC is connected to the Internet for a given period of time.

Today's Eight-Ball Award Goes to. . .

Sorry for today's late start. Blogger was acting up early this morning and other matters had me busy the rest of the morning.

On to the Eight-Ball Award ceremony. Today's recipient displays and amazing amount of "black and white" thinking; he is unable to think in nuances, shades of gray. He is so utterly clueless he can not understand the difference between an axe-murderer who had years and years of appeals and a woman who had a heart attack and is being starved to death. He continues to show his mind-numbedness by failing to understand the differences between the removal of a murdering torturing tyrant to trying to starving a defenseless woman to death.

Yes Ron Smith of Waupaca you are today's winner of the "Eight-Ball of the Day" Award!

REMEMBER TUCKER? I wonder if we would be having this Terri Schiavo battle if there’d been a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice, and if Medicare payments had been cut as Bush wishes to do. By the way, is quality of life even a consideration? Oh, yeah, I forgot, pro-life people want you in pain or out of your mind to the last dying breath. Let’s err on the side of life, except for war or the 152 cases of lethal injection in Bush’s Texas. Remember Carla Faye Tucker; she did plead for her life.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

The Last Bit.

I had prepared tonight's Last Bit and did a preview. Instead of hitting the back to edit link I hit the back button in Netscape. I lost it all! I can not blame blogger (though I hate its interface) as I know I have to be careful or lose work. It was a long time in the making and the production I had planned for tonight is going to have to wait until tomorrow or some other time.

Not to worry I do have a backup.

The Elvoy Creek.

I love up north during the winter. It is so much more peaceful than it is in the summer. Even the buzz of the occasional pack of snowmobiles adds to the peace rather than detracts from it. This was taken on our way back from the ski hill the other weekend. It is peaceful and beautiful.

Terri McCormick: A Bio Part II.

First off. Thanks to Owen at Boots and Sabers for alerting his readers to this series of blogs! As I said at the PEN event, one can have tons of talent and ability (don't take this as a claim that I do) but without the help of others we get nowhere.

I will be blogging on Terri McCormick's credentials as revealed by the bio-sheet I picked up at the Friends of McCormick event yesterday. If you want me to dig up ammo to use against her, forget it find it yourself. It should be very evident who I support in this matter and for the other candidates out there please do not take it as an affront. You too would be worthy for the job and I will support you if you win the nomination.

Like I said in the previous blog I have never been in this position before. In the previous senatorial race I had to explain myself to friends who supported the other candidates but never to the candidate.

Representative Terri McCormick's background focuses on political science and education. Her Bachelor's Degree is from UW-Oshkosh in Political Science and then went to to earn a Master's in Educational Administration from Marian and earned her education certificate from Lawrence here in Appleton. She also studied at the University of Windsor in Windsor Ontario (the fact she remains a Republican despite studying at a U in Canada is a tribute to the strength of her convictions).

Representative McCormick served as an instructor and consultant at Xavier HS and St. Joseph Middle school (both in Appleton). She also founded the Wisconsin Charter School Association and served as its president.

Terri was first elected to the State Assembly in 2000 and represents Wisconsin's 56th Assembly District. As a member of the Assembly Terri chairs the Assembly Economic Development Committee and in the last session she chaired the Speaker's Task Force on Local Government Health Parthnerships. She is the vice-chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and serves on the Insurance, Public Health, Education Reform, and Transportation committees. Wow! That seems like an awful lot!

Cracking Down on P2P.

Is not good.

I as a user of Linux am very leery of the courts trying to shape the marketplace and this is what the RIAA is trying to do. Don't think this is going to stop those from using the Internet for nefarious purposes either. There are plenty of people out there running wide-open servers for anyone to find and log onto to (no need for cracking, as they are as open as secure as a screen tent).

This kind of government meddling in the market place has to be stopped. It has (admittedly it is just a matter of convenience) caused me grief. The other day Blackfive posted a report of how three humvees worth of MPs (and some were women to boot) kicked some terrorist tail in Iraq. They had a link to the video recovered from the ambushing terrorists and the video was in WMV format which if I understand correctly is some sort of MS standard. Since my system runs on Linux I don't have a viewer for the WMV format. No problem!

I hit up Google find a site that contains an X-Windows package to view WMV files. Guess what? It is shutdown! They can not distribute their code anymore due to patent litigation. This is why I hate MS, they do not publish their standards.

Don't think I support the lawsuits against MS anymore than lawsuits on behalf of MS.

Michelle Weighs in on P2P and is Light.

P2P is peer-to-peer a general software protocol for two computers on the internet to share files.

Michelle Malkin is not concerned about the recording industry but about how this sort of file sharing is enabling pedophiles to share kiddie porn and to swipe pictures of children off the PCs of the unsuspecting.

I am all for protecting those "really excellent uses." And I am all for protecting software entrepreneurs and their right to create new products. This blog wouldn't exist without them. But there's a cloud of unreality hanging over the P2P debate. It's not just high-minded geek revolutionaries against Big Media/RIAA/MPAA who are benefiting from P2P. And P2P ain't just about trading your favorite tunes.

It's also about sickos and smut purveyors who have unprecedented access to an unimaginable volume of child porn--not to mention photos of children made available to child sex predators through indavertent file-sharing.

First off anyone using the Internet should learn at least a little bit about computer security. It is even becoming possible to lock windows down but unfortunately most people can not be bothered about protecting the files on their PCs.

Secondly and this is where I diverge from Michelle's view. What can be done? It doesn't take a genius to develop their own file sharing protocols and standards. That is anyone who knows how the Internet works can set up their own P2P system. I am quite certain there is at least one or two pedophiles who can write their own P2P systems.

Another point. What is there to stop pedophiles from using old TCP/IP protocols to distribute kiddie porn? Heck, good ole FTP is quite adequate to do the job. It is a brave new world and it didn't become new or brave with P2P systems.

This is interesting from another angle. Some weeks ago I blogged about a document coming from the Department of Homeland Security addressing how Jihadis use the Internet to communicate. They use the same exact Internet tools we all do (e-mail, FTP, the WWW, P2P etc etc etc) and exploit the same poor security all too many systems have (or don't have, even poor security would be better than none which again too many systems on the Internet are wide-open).

Sorry Michelle the only thing to be done is for people to be vigilant in their home PC security precautions and for investigators to continue going after those who create and post the smut (oh, that's right the SCOTUS has upheld freedom of speech for creators of virtual child pornography, I wonder if they looked at Belgium law for that).

UPDATE11:31 PM CST An edit due to redundancy in wording occurred. No meaning was changed.

Terri McCormick: A Bio. Part I.

I don't know much about her. She seems to have slipped under most people's radars. I'm not sure that that reflects well on her career.

I commented

She isn't under your radar anymore!

Terri is my rep in the Assembly and she will do a great job representing the 8th District in Washington D.C. Her work in the Assembly is not flashy but it is still important.

FC: [sic was supposed to be FD for full disclosure] She attended a fundraiser up in GB (http://www.newbayanihan.org/PEN/) on Jan 22 that I was a part of organizing and volunteered to help her campaign out.

Anyway I am going to blog a series on Terri's background. The comment about Terri being under Owen's radar is interesting. Owen is located down in the Southeast Part of Wisconsin so he is going to be less aware of the candidates than us who actually live in the 8th CD. So far I believe the candidates are Terri, Steve Wieckert, John Gard, and rumors have Paul Jadin running as well.

I personally know Terri and Steve and have a friend who knows Paul. This is the first time in politics I am in this situation where I personally know two of the candidates fairly close up.

Is an unaware person human?

Wesley Smith: Bill, do you think Terri is a person?

Bill Allen: No, I do not. I think having awareness is an essential criterion for personhood. Even minimal awareness would support some criterion of personhood, but I don't think complete absence of awareness does.

This is stunning! This means infants (born alive and healthy) are not persons. I can not recall when I first became aware but I venture to guess it was around three to four years of age. Prior to that I have no memories of anything and from three to four the memories are spotty. So does this mean it is permissible to murder a two year old and then say "no awareness no person"?

Rush Notes...

A capital punishment case in Colorado where a convicted murderers death penalty was commuted by a court. The reason, jurors referred to the Bible. Too bad they did not refer to Libyan law as it seems our justices accept all sorts of international law but not the Bible.

Abu Sayyaf growing in strength?

Recently some Malaysians were arrested for trying to cross illegally into the Filipines. Apparently the were Jemmah Islamiya operatives trying to connect with the Abu Sayyaf counterparts. The report indicates Abu Sayyaf is not quite ready to pull of a bombing on the scale of Bali but it is not too far from that point. The article seriously questions the idea that Abu Sayyaf is on the ropes.

For those of you not in the know about Abu Sayyaf here is the quick and dirty of Abu Sayyaf. Abu Sayyaf is a Filipino Islamic terror group that purportedly aims to create an Islamic state in the southern Filipines.

When the Spanish first arrived in the Filipines Islam was just arriving. It had taken solid root in the southern islands but not in the central and northern islands. Christianity was able to drive it out of those central and northern islands but never completely from the southern islands. There are two larger groups working for Muslim autonomy in the South and these are the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Abu Sayyaf sprung from the MNLF.

Abu Sayyaf operates mainly in the south and into Malaysia. They get their funding from kidnapping and extortion and have kidnapped people from the Filipines as far north as Palawaan (Martin and Gracia Burnham US missionaries were kidnapped from Palawaan) and from Malaysia. They also carry out bombing and armed attacks. The most infamous attacks came in 1995 and in 2004. In 1995 they attacked the city of Ipil and 54 civilians were murdered and in 2004 they blew up a ferry killing 187 people.

So Abu Sayyaf hooking up with Jemmah Islamiya is a serious problem. They have caused enough misery as it is and now they are getting serious training.

Sunshine in the Valley.

Good Morning!

Welcome to another day of fun and adventure at Blogger Beer!

I do have one thing to place on today's agenda. This item relates to yesterday's late blog on Terri McCormick. I will report on her bio sheet and do a little more digging and reasoning to let you all know why I support Terri!

I hope all of the other fun Blogger Beer items will appear today as well. Namely Drudgies, The Eight-Ball Award, and I am contemplating the creation of a new award. This new award is going to go the person exhibiting the most incompetent use of computer technology. I am not going to tell you the name of this award at the moment!

Monday, March 28, 2005

The Last Bit.

One of the funniest things I remember when teaching was in one of my introduction to computer classes. This was really an introduction for a number of them and the majority of that course was keyboarding.

One of the exercises in the word processing section of that course was a tract I had them type.

I gave them classic fuzzy-wuzzy tongue twister. You know:

Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a BearFuzzy Wuzzy Had No HairSo Fuzzy Wuzzy Wasn't Fuzzy Was He?

I can still hear and see one of my students (his name was Tariq and he was quite a character) saying to me:

Eight-Ball Award Goes to. . .

OFFICIAL STUPIDITY: I am opposed to most bans, because they lead to censorship from right and left. I would ban bans. However, if one must make a choice, how about putting a ban on stupidity? Any official be it local, state or national who has done something idiotic that has adversely affected the Constitution, economy, environment or welfare of the citizens would be barred from holding public office in the future. Many Representatives in Congress would not be re-elected, Wolfowitz would not become director of the World Bank, and Tom DeLay would be sent packing back to Texas. But that would require an intelligent electorate.

Colleen Sutherland,Seymour

Colleen is a barking moonbat species all onto herself! I will have to look into this further later on.

Her diatribe above which actually seems reasonable by her usual moonbarking is yet another example how the left is opposed to self-determination and wants to determine everything for you.

While I did not look further I would guess the more aggressive "killer bees" are pushing them out in the southern parts of our nation. This is not trivial as honeybees are extremely efficient pollinators and this would affect our agricultural industry.

Demonstrators Turn Anger Toward President, Jeb Bush...

They shouldn't. It was those on the left that are starving Terri (though this one doesn't split straight down party lines). Turn that energy into going after the Democrats who oppose the President's judicial nominees.

U.S. soccer team assaulted in Mexico with objects and chants of "Osama" by Mexican fans...

Hmmm, this is ironic a stadium full of kaffirs cheering for the man who would forcibly convert them to Islam. Soccer is such a gay game.

FEC Proposed Regulations Blog. VII.

I spent a little more time looking at the end of the FEC proposed regulations document.

As I said earlier it discusses what is a volunteer and basically says anyone who is an independent volunteer and is funding their activities on their own is not going to be regulated. It also spends some time looking at the role of company/union supplied gear has on all of this.

I get a laptop from my company and take it home. Now am I allowed to blog politically with this laptop? It appears the FEC is leaning to NO you are not (apart of isolated and incidental usages).

None of this changes my opinion of the BCRA. A judge ordered the FEC to do this, and if that same (or other) judge does not like the rules they develop then the way the judiciary is today it will write and impose the rules they want (or the rules wanted in China, or Guinea, or Jamaica, or Uruguay).

Testing My Quote Style!

I just hacked my template to include a new style. I will use this style when I quote material from other people or sources. This is a test of my new quoting style. I hope it works! This is actually not a quote but an original piece of text created by myself to test my quote style!

XML & CSS.

XML is extended markup language and CSS is cascading style sheets. I picked up reference books on CSS and I hope to learn them to be able to do a few things. Those of you who work with blogger and have looked at your template may or may not know what is going on with all the code. The code you see is XML.

XML lets a web-author create their own tags. Those tags then have special meaning to programs that read them and then they know what to do with the data within those tags. HTML tags are strictly formatting, that is to say control font size, color, create tables and the like. They give no clue as to what is between them.

XML on the other hand gives programs reading them as to what the information in between the tags is. Cascading Style Sheets is one way a web-author can dictate how the XML should be displayed and in fact it works with regular HTML as well. One can alter the way standard HTML tags are rendered with CSS.

I am just learning about these two web languages and am going to concentrate on CSS. The other book picked up is a reference on PHP and MySQL. Both by O'Reilly.

Threats By The NPA to our Troops.

As you may know we have advisers and troops in the Filipines to help train the Filipine Army and forces in anti-terrorist fighting.

Right now the biggest name in terror in the Filipine is the group known as Abu Sayyf which is an Islamic terror/criminal gang affiliated with Al-Qaeda and most likely works closely with whats left of the MILF and the MNLF both Islamic separatist groups.

However there is yet another group engaged in a small but annoying insurgency against the Filipino government and that is the New People's Army (NPA). The NPA is to the Communist Party of the Filipines as is the IRA is to Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland.

The Communist Party of the Filipines has been pressuring Malacanang (the Filipino "Whitehouse") to get our government (USA) to remove the NPA from the terrorist groups list. Of course this is not happening. So we get this story.

The guerrillas praised Iraqis for "their heroic struggle for having already killed in only two years' time more than 1,500 U.S. troops" and wounding thousands of others.

"They can be made to bleed and die on the ground, as now demonstrated by the Iraqi people and previously by the Vietnamese and other peoples," the statement said.

It is fascinating to see the leftists and their view of the world. The view of the NPA and the Filipino Communist party is stuck in Vietnam in the late '60s and early '70s. 1500 troops in two years is incredibly poor performance. Yes, our soldiers are not invincible, they can be wounded, they can be hurt.

This silly statement also says: "...as now demonstrated by the Iraqi people". Anyone who thinks the Iraqi people support the baathists and jihadis is woefully misinformed. If the NPA thinks they can motivate the general populace in the Filipines to strike at USA soldiers is just as misinformed. No doubt the NPA and their colleagues in Abu Sayff, the Alexander Boncayo Brigade and their bloody brethren are going to pick off USA officers and soldiers from time to time but they are not going to shake the will to help those who want to rid the world of their pestilential existence!

On an aside I was in the Filipines in 1994. On a trip to one of the provinces our jeepney was stopped at a checkpoint. The people at the point were not dressed as governmental officers so I assumed we paid a toll to the NPA. Later on elsewhere we were stopped at a checkpoint which was being run by the Filipino Army. In both cases there was absolutely no problem and I don't know if the NPAs knew I was there. The army did.

The Badgers.

Made a fine effort against the Tar Heels.

They managed to keep up despite being forced to play out of their style.

My one criticism of this team and it has been a standing criticism since I started paying attention to Badger Basketball. The Badgers fold like a origami artist when faced with full court pressure! This was true under Bennet, Soderberg, and still true under Ryan.

The Badgers finished off the first half in a strong fashion and kept it up in the second half until the Tar Heels applied full court pressure. When that happened the Tar Heels went on, what was it? A twelve point run? We never saw that full court pressure again because the Tar Heels did not need and I would bet had the Badgers started distancing themselves with another lead it would have evaporated in a similar fashion.

I wrote earlier that some people wondered if I had been Moby-ed – that is, whether the conservatives upset with Congressional action in the Sciavo [sic] case who e-mailed me were real Republicans, or liberals claiming to be upset righties.

Mary wrote in again, and I believe she’s the real deal. She noted she would prefer to find Republican primary challengers who were more dedicated to small-government ideals than to pull the lever for a Democrat.

Obviously, disgruntled conservatives like Mary are out there. Perhaps they are a factor in this odd poll result. (The Bush approval rating leaves me scratching my head. This is the lowest moment of the Bush presidency? Not Abu Ghraib? Not the worst moments of the Iraqi insurgency? Not the time of the Enron scandals, or the post-9/11 business slump? Or does Bush’s low poll numbers reflect that as things seem to be improving in Iraq, it lessens the ‘we’re at war, we have to rally-around the flag’ effect?)

Anyway, a sampling from the e-mailbag:

Marcus wrote in:I view this as something the [libertarians] will forget about in due time. There is absolutely no purpose in leaving the conservative coalition. They will only succeed in getting Dems elected.

I too am quite shocked by the reaction of many on the right. I have been listening to Rush Limbaugh and he has been taking call after call after call from people who argue in support of Terri's husband in this matter. These are people who again start off by giving their conservative bona-fides at the start of the call. That always gives me cause to suspect but not in the volume Rush has been taking these calls.. . . [other notes in response]

One never can tell what is going to be published by the big blogs! I hope Jim bothered to stop by Blogger Beer!

Easter In the Valley!

A HAPPY AND BLESSED EASTER TO ALL OF YOU!

May the Risen Lord Guide You and Give You the Strength You Need!

Saturday, March 26, 2005

The Last Bit.

An Easter Vigil Meditation.

Yesterday I wrote about the Passion of Jesus and how we all have our own mini-passions.

Most of our mini-passions are just that they are mini. Some reading this may be undergoing trials which will ultimately end in death and hence they may seem to be pointless. I will get to that but I want to meditate a little on our garden variety passions. Losing a significant-other, losing a job, losing to death someone close to us, sickness and the like.

Have faith, God has something in mind for you. Things seem dark (this is not the place for cliches don't worry) but God has a plan. That plan may be a better job, a better person to serve as a companion, the determination to carry on in someone's name to do great things.

Garth Brooks sings a song called "Unanswered Prayers". He sings about praying to God to make a "girl his". The prayer, it seems, is never answered. Later on the character in the song comes to realize the reason God did not seem to answer the prayers is because God had better things in mind. Indeed.

Those suffering life threatening passions I can not say more than to exhort you to be an inspiration to others. I have never been in such a position and to claim great wisdom in such affairs would be a despicable lie. Have faith and inspire is all I can say.

Have faith, accept your passions and realize the willing acceptance of your passions leads to glory. Just the same as the Passion of Jesus led to his Glorious Resurrection.

Good Night, God Bless & May the Risen God Bless You and all about You!

Style Manuals: A Bleg.

FYI a bleg is a blog that begs for an answer, I should probably put that in the dictionary!

Here goes. Those of you who read this probably regard my writing as you would the writing of a musky guide. I spent my high school years looking down at my English classes and did not learn to properly use punctuation (duhhhh!). Oh sure, I have the basics down like periods, exclamation marks, and question marks but the comma (non-list), the colon, the semi-colon , the dash & hyphen, the apostrophe (I am fairly comfy with this one), and quote marks (I am fairly comfy with this one as well). In my college years the profs were not very interested in such mechanics so I was never taken to the woodshed (though other profs would, but their purpose was not writing so much as lab reports and the like).

One of the magazines I am interested in trying to get published in adheres to the Chicago Style Manual but that manual seems a trifle advanced for my needs. In college I used to use the Harbrace manual but have long since lost that manual and am thinking about getting it again. There are two sorts of manuals, a regular one and a college manual. Are you familiar with either one? Which sounds right for my needs?

The History of the Eight-Ball!

Is quite old and arcane!

It originates from the United Arab Emirates and was first used to show off the absurdity and stupidity of man named Uthman Barry. Uthman as far as most people could tell was certainly an "Old-Worlder" and from what I gather an Irish man who had converted to Islam. He constantly wrote letters to the UAE's English Daily: The Nulf Gews. He accused anyone and everyone in the United States of being a Jew who hated Muslims and Islam. He was a crank and was the inspiration for the Eight-Ball award.

Googling Mr. Barry shows nothing but Uthman is the original eight-ball and the guys who classify animal specimens will probably categorize him as being an ancestor of the barking moonbat.

Eight-Ball Awards: We Have a Winner!

Wouldn't you know it, this is one of the comments among the condolences and sympatheis being offered:Thats what you get for invading a country and electing GWB. You get what you deserve. Posted by: Not Really Important at March 22, 2005 08:47 AM

The link provided takes one to the official website of the Whitehouse.

Congratulations "Not Really Important". Not only are you unimportant but you are also way dumb and you are today's Eight-Ball recipient!

Social Darwinists Sponsor a Hunt!

Handel's Messiah.

Is typically only performed or listened to at Christmas time.

What you don't know The Messiah? You know the Hallelujah chorus? That is from Handel's Messiah and when do you usually hear that (Charlie Sykes listeners, it is not just when a Republican wins an election)? Right, Christmas time.

Actually that Hallelujah chorus is an EASTER song! My recording of The Messiah (which is playing as I type) is a Phillips recording of John Elliot Gardener's The English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir and was recorded in 1982.

Anyway the Hallelujah chorus is the last track on disc 2 of three. One of the early tracks on disc 2 they sing out a passage fro Isaih 50:6:He gave His back to the smiters,and His cheeks to themthat plucked off the hair:He hid not His facefrom shame and spitting.

Clearly Handel is quoting prophecy that foretells of Christ's Passion and why would one sing Hallelujah after that? Stay tuned and tomorrow I will blog that!

Powerline notes:

My guess is people are starting to grow weary of the Schiavo debate, to a certain extent I too grow tired of it.

Deacon at Powerline has an extremely sensible blog about it. No matter what side of the issue you fall on he does point out with a little thought one can typically see the other side of the argument. I can not say I fall far from the fence but I am definitely on the keep her alive side. I admit to some cynicism about Michael's motives.

In the end this is what ALL have to keep in mind: "However, as neurologist Kenneth Gross argues in today's Washington Times questions about what Terri feels and about her state of consciousness are essentially unanswerable on the basis of today's science. Thus, it is understandable that people resolve them based on their world view." (from Deacon's blog)

This cuts both ways. Perhaps Terri is not feeling anything. Perhaps she reacts to the balloon as a hydra reacts to light BUT WE CAN NOT TELL FOR SURE!

Sean Hannity has had a guest on his show a couple of times who suffered some kind of stroke. She was in a state characterized as coma for sometime. She said all the while she was perfectly conscious and aware. The doctors were trying to get her husband to kill her off ("pull the plug" is a euphemism for muddling up what is really going on). All the while this woman was feeling hearing and struggling to escape. They never bothered anaesthetizing her when operating and she felt real pain though she was unable to communicate that to others.

I am 55 and will not be able to privatize any of my SS. Therefore, I view my role as a myth destroyer and encourager to those younger (and older) than me. Neal, why do other seniors think the whole system is going private? My mother-in-law (83 years old) actually thought she would have to invest all of her SS and she would not receive her check. I think we have convinced her she will see no change. My normally intelligent sister-in-law (56 year old) had the same fears. How can the average citizen who is not a news junky be informed. Help! Kathy [emphasis added]

Indeed. This belief among those receiving social security is common for one reason. The opponents of this plan are blatantly misrepresenting the plan! Not too long ago I saw an editorial cartoon with two old people opening the mail. The man said to his wife: No its not our social security check, its Enron stock.

Of course people who read the editorial page are more informed than the average citizen and this is what they get?

Libertarian Whining about the Baseball Hearings.

Is barely able to make itself heard above the noise being generated by the Schiavo case but it is there.

For the life of me, please explain to me why Baseball should not be forced to clean itself up? This organization has had up to now essentially no policy on fighting the use of controlled substances within its ranks. Do you want baseball monitoring itself or the Federal government?

This is well within the purview of governmental powers if it isn't then what is the sense of having any laws?

Some may say baseball just a game therefore the government is wasting its time and to that I say try again! Baseball is big business and it also has anti-trust exemption two more reasons why this is a bigger deal than the critics charge.

A sub-organization in baseball (the Player's Union) wants to keep illegal activities hidden and MLB was not doing anything about those hidden activities. Sooner or later the parent organization has to take charge.

Spotted in the APC.

On March 11 you ran an article by Ed Culhane refuting claims that the state is trying to balance the budget on the backs of hunters and fishers. I agree with Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Hassett. Those claims are wrong.

As a Wisconsin fisher, I am very concerned about the condition of our state's fishing resources. And as a citizen, I am anxious to do my part to improve those and other state natural resources. The proposed fee increase is our insurance policy to keep resources protected and healthy.

Our society has an amazing urge to get things cheaply, easily and quickly. Money is dribbled away on all sorts of things that fill our homes and garages or satisfy urges to smoke, drink, gamble, etc. Because money is tight, I need to prioritize what is important. [emphasis added]

Really? Who would have thought people in our society have an "urge to get things cheaply, easily and quickly." Wow, what a completely amazing observation. Deb, you are not an eight-ball but you are obviously a wizened observer of the American. You need to get on the talk radio circuit your wisdom and insight needs to be shared! I am totally awed in your presence! That last comment about prioritizing is way deep.

Enough! Hahaha anyway I generally find myself on the same side as Deb here. Fishing and hunting is a privelege not a right and those who wish to engage in the sport need to realize they need to pay for it. Too often fee increases are lumped together with tax increases, and usually I see this is not the case. I hunt a bit and I fish a bit and I gripe about the increases in license costs but I am not going to force those who do not engage in those activities to subsidize them for myself.

Spending a few dollars more to ensure quality natural resources is much more important to me than most other things I can spend it on. And, good fish in our lakes and streams can translate into supper on the table —not a bad investment after all.

Sunshine in the Valley.

Friday, March 25, 2005

The Last Bit.

Good Friday in my part of the world is about to end.

What is Good Friday? On the surface it is the day we commemorate the Crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. On a deeper level it is a reminder to us suffering is part of our existence, unfortunate though it may be it is at times necessary.

Suffering is hard. Often times suffering seems meaningless and cruel. We often ask God why, why me? We often accuse God of abandoning us and forgetting about us. We wonder what sin or sins we have committed to bring on such suffering. To do all that is very human, even Jesus Christ on the eve of his Passion asked his Father to spare him of it. What sin did Jesus commit? What sin did Job commit?

In Luke 13:4-5 Jesus says:Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. That is to say the reason for suffering is unfathomable.

We need to have faith that God will sustain us through our sufferings that in the end the day will be brighter. We need to have faith that there is a reason behind our suffering.

My Liquor Beer & Wine IQ.

Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the bottleand a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild Turkey or 99Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know how to handle youralcohol, and yourself at parties.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

A Wider Question.

Thinking about the events of the past week got me to thinking. Especially in the light of Libertarian complaints. I want to get this on the blog right now so I don't forget to address this later (or not so much address as think it publicly).

Libertarians are viewing the Terri Schiavo controversy in terms of a governmental power grab. IMO, a narrow view of events. I think this is over the top as there are a lot of questions that have to be answered before it can be likened to a power grab and in any event the lives of the citizenry is a governmental priority we should all support.

The problem is now we assume the judge has the final say in what happens. The judge may have the final say but that is all they have, a say. The congress has the bucks and the executive the enforcement duties. There are plenty of examples in history where the judgments of justices were ignored and in my opinion there are times when they should be ignored.

The judges in our system have now become so used to having the final say they no longer feel constrained by the constitution, the constitution means whatever they say it means.

Drudgies.

Get over it India, we need Pakistan on our side and if they are on our side they will be okay with you!

Pope Weak, Sidelined, But 'Lucid' on Good Friday...

Good thing. . . Oh nevermind!

Gulf officials: China, India boom means oil prices will stay high...

That and US refining capacity is at or very near peak, that recent explosion doesn't make things better. This means one long summer of having to deal with all sorts of whining about gasoline prices.

Iraq's insurgents 'seek exit strategy'...

There is that cliche again, oh. . . wait a minute it is bad guys looking for an exit strategy. Speaking of cliches it is sometime since I have heard a news report use "quagmire". I wonder if they have grown weary of the word or finally see the concept doesn't apply?

U.S. forces thwart Shawshank-type prison escape in southern Iraq ...

Do we get to see a movie of this? I can see it now Tim Robbins stars and unlike the real action, Tim's character escapes and leads the Iraqi baathists and jihadis to victory over the Evil Yankee.

LAPD LEAVES BAG OF EXPLOSIVES AT LAX...

The police are human and less than perfect. Can we count on them 100% of the time to prevent us from being victims? No! WI needs concealed carry.

Iran Stockpiling High-Tech Small Arms...

These guys are planning for the wrong war. Iran is going to be an inside job.

I hope blogger gets this published this time. I save locally for good measure!

Extensive FEC Rule Blogging.

Variation on a Matt Groening Coined Word: Rovediddit.

Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons and some of you may know another one of Matt's creations is a cartoon entitled Life is Hell. I don't know if it is still being published or not but I bought a book of Life in Hell cartoons at the end of my college days (some time ago, I just received the invite for my 20th HS reunion). In it they had a list of terms coming out of the '80s. One of them was "Reagandiddit". Homelessness? Reagandiddit. Death and woe? Reagandiddit. Get it?

Powerline notes this story:A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders like Hariri and Hobeika are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove [emphasis added] and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert operations, including political assassinations.

This is part of a story looking into the assassination of Rafik Hairiri former prime minister of Lebanon. Who is this charging: Rovediddit? An American in name only by the name of Wayne Madsen.

And this life is worth saving?

IN THE FLORIDA COURTS [K. J. Lopez]ST. PETERSBURG - More than 20 years ago, a jury took only about an hour to convict James Floyd of murdering an 86-year-old woman in her home. They took another hour to send him to death row.

The evidence seemed compelling. Police caught Floyd cashing the victim's stolen checks. A bloodied sock, a jailhouse snitch, tire tracks and some hairs also were presented at trial.

But on Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court tossed out Floyd's conviction and death sentence because prosecutors didn't share other important evidence with defense attorneys. The ruling called the new evidence "unsettling."

Unfortunately DP opponents will probably characterize this as a case of an innocent man on death row.

"Artificial Life Support"

The Imminent Death of Conservatism?

Here we go yet again with the imminent death of Conservatism. As someone (who was it again) the rumors of the death of conservatism are highly exaggerated.

The libertarian wing of the Conservative movement is making much noise about how the GOP has overstepped its bounds in the Terri Schiavo matter. I think this is much ado about nothing and in the end the only possible fallout is more motivation on part of the GOP base to rattle the cages of senators who are opposed to the President's judicial nominees (though what did the conservative justices who were involved with the Schiavo case do?).

I view the libertarian wing of the party as the nutty relative who can not be disowned but is embarrassing. Now by this I am not saying the Conservative movement can not do without its Libertarian wing but at times they are crazy.

Back in '02 Libertarians were running around Wisconsin yelling we needed Ed Thompson or we would lose our gun rights. Well I tell you their plan really helped advance the cause of gun rights in Wisconsin. Doyle won (Doyle who Handgun Control Inc. loves) and vetoed the concealed carry bill. Way to go Libertarians! McCallum would have signed that bill!

If the Conservative movement needs Libertarians then the Libertarians life support comes from the Conservative movement.

Now I will address their gripe. It usually comes down to the belief that Congress put its nose into an area where it did not belong. I find this argument boils down to one question, is the government responsible to defend the life and liberty of its citizens? I say yes and it is and Terri's life is in danger.

The government at times must step into a person's life. The question is when. When a person's life is on the line then the government should step in.

Our President and Congress have given us some stinkers (the BCRA is stinker #1) but this case is not one of the them.

Stem Cell Research.

Michelle Malkin points out a column by Mike Fumento about a diabetes researcher who has cured diabetes in mice. Dr. Faustman wants to extend her research to human beings but she has been three times denied grant monies by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRFI). The reason according to Fumento and ethicist Wesley Smith is the JDRF is opposed to her use of Adult Stem Cells instead of Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC).

This is incredible! I have a very hard time believing an organization dedicated to finding a cure for juvenile diabetes would eschew a very promising avenue. But Mr. Fumento pushes the line that the JDRF is more of an ESC research advocate than diabetes cure advocate. In fact Michael's first article on the topic contains much that is compelling.

In any event the quarrel over stem cell research is so full of bilge the ship is sinking. Adult stem cells are in the field and assisting with curing people of diseases right now. For example a friend of mine recently went through a very arduous treatment for lymphoma (large B-cell) and part of this treatment involved an autologous adult stem cell transplant. I have yet to hear of any treatment that involved or involves embryonic stem cell transplant.

FEC Proposal Part VI. My Take.

The previous blogs on the FEC proposal were pretty much dry reporting (an early blog had some opinion in it) on what the proposal states to do.

The entire text of the document suggests they are being careful not to restrict Joe Sixpacks using the Internet to make political speech.

But this does little to allay my concerns on the BCRA in Internet-land in particular and everywhere else in general.

As long as you are acting individually you do not typically fall under the scope of the rules. But when you act in concert with others then you do. We have a saying for this "divide and conquer". Also I fear of having to go through a checklist prior to sending out communications, are speech checklists compatible with the First Amendment? They certainly are not First Amendment friendly and when it comes to political speech (what the First Amendment is primarily about) they are not at all First Amendment friendly.

While the commission is working to protect individual independent communications it is still troubling. They go through many many words to define this that and the other thing. I can easily see an individual running afoul of even the more benign proposals. Regulation such as this makes it harder and harder to know what is okay and what isn't. What's a person to do? If they have the money and will hire a lawyer to figure it all out. Even if a person does not hire a lawyer these regulations increase the cost of speech. All speech has a cost to it.

I have to invest time and effort (I hear it now, "Marcus your musky-guide like writing involves little time or effort!") in order to write well and clear. Now I have to invest time and effort to determine if I am running afoul of the law?

In the end the rules will be promulgated and a judge is going to decide if they are adequate and all it takes is one speech offended politician and their lawyer to have a judge further restrict our rights to speech.

The sad part is there WILL regulations on internet communications. Thanks to Senators Feingold and McCain, the House, the Senate, President Bush, and the Supreme Court.

FEC Proposal Part V.

The end of the document contains some more definitions and proposals that I skimmed over as I am most interested in the parts about home use. They talk about the use of Internet communications via corporate/union channels. The commission notes as long as the use is incidental then the communication is not regulated.

By incidental they mean in a manner that is not coerced by the union or the employer and does not interfere with ones job.

FEC Proposal Part IV.

On page 34 lines 1-14 appear to be loosening a restriction on independent volunteer internet activities. The language is murky. . . .if an individual acting independently incurs no additional cost in creating a website that contains express advocacy of a clearly identified candidate, at least some portion of the underlying costs of creating and maintaining that website is an expenditure under the Act and must be reported if it exceeds $250 in a calendar year.(Draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Internet Communications. Page 34 lines 1-5)

Then the document goes on and revises this policy. It appears this is the rule right now and this FEC commission wants to repeal this and as long as the work is voluntary and occurs via equipment and services the volunteer has normal access to (public library equipment, personal equipment etc) then this type of work should no longer be counted as a contribution. Like I said the section is not written very clearly and I am giving you my impression of what it is driving at.

FEC Proposal Part III.

Starting on page 27 line 20 and going through page 31 line 11, the document discusses the media exemption what it is and ruminate about how it should apply to the online world.

This section also explicitly mentions bloggers. Starting on page 30 line 16 and going through to the end of the section the question of how the media exception should be extended if at all to bloggers. They also bring up the bloggers paid by candidates in this context as well.

Reproducing Candidate Prepared Materials. FEC Prop. Part II.

This is found page 24 (lines 15-21) through page 25 (lines 1-19). What they are talking about is when a blogger, a webmaster, or an e-mailer takes a public communication (something explicitly covered by CFR rules and regulations) and reproduces it or re-distributes it or links to it. They note Senator Feingold has expressed that his intention in sponsoring the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) was not to regulate such activities.

It is apparent the FEC believes such communications could very well fall under the scope of regulation otherwise why ask about it?

Pouring Through the FEC Proposal. Part I.

I am not quite half-way through the proposed regulations and have come across the first section that relates to blogs. This section is on pages 21 lines 18-21 to page 22 lines 1-14.

The section notes in 2004 certain highly linked to and visited blogs received payments to promote at least one presidential and one senatorial candidates. For example, the operator of the ninth most "linked" blog on the Internet, which received as many as one million visits daily, reportedly received $12,000 over a four-month period from one presidential candidate.(Draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Internet Communications. Page 22 lines 1-2).

The question asked is should such blogs be required to disclose such payments? This is a different question from should they? Most people agree they should. My guess is in light of the current atmosphere on CFR is they will require such disclosure.

Such disclosure is coerced speech and as such it runs afoul of the First Amendment. Some may say this disclosure is required (See the bottom of this page for just such a disclosure.) for other similar communications but all that means is coercion is going on in other forms of communication.

Eight-Ball Sighting!

FLIP-FLOP: After signing the Schiavo law, President Bush stated it is “wisest to always err on the side of life.” As governor of Texas, he repeatedly preferred to err on the side of death when he refused to present 152 prisoners from being executed. More recently, as president, he started an unnecessary war that has resulted in more than 1,500 deaths of American military personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqis. Clearly, then, President Bush must agree that he frequently has failed to make the wisest choice.

John S. Williamson Jr.,

Appleton

What a moron. This guy can not tell the difference between the innocent and the guilty. This guy apparently does not read the news, if he did he would know the effort in Iraq is paying back huge dividends.

Congratulations John S. Williamson Jr. you are today's Eight-Ball recipient!

Thursday, March 24, 2005

The Last Bit.

On Leadership.

Tonight is Holy Thursday and most Christians know how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The washing of feet was an important hospitality extended to guests and a mean job for the person who did it. None-the-less Jesus did this for his disciples. This is a great lesson in leadership, not Christian leadership but leadership period.

Jesus was trying to show his disciples that to lead you must serve. Those who wish to be served have no business in leadership. Think about it, when your job is easy you do it, only when things become difficult do you ask your boss to help ease the load.

Jesus (and the Bible in general) give many other lessons in leadership but this is tonight's lesson.

Have to do it! Which NYT Journalist are you?

You are Nicholas D. Kristof! You enjoy travelling,going as far as China, Africa, Alaska, andCentral America for a good story. You use a lotof quotes and references in your stories. Youtackle tough issues like AIDS and religion,which makes you controversial among Christians.You're a good man, Nicholas D. Kristof.

Another interesting observation was that on a protest in Iraq. It was electrical workers protesting against the terrorists. Not one single sign was spotted (at least not in the picture I saw) was sporting the Latin alphabet, all were in Arabic. Hindrocket makes the astute observation that of course not, the terrorists are not trying to sway the Iraqis they are trying to sway the leftists and the weak willed in America and in the West.

The UAE had a national healthcare system but as Spock would have said in the UAE: "While I might trust the UAE health system to remove a splinter or lance a boil, I would not trust it with anything more advanced than a broken bone." I had an extra health insurance policy just in case as did most of my colleagues. I also know of a case where appenicitis proved to be fatal a very sad story.

Feingold Says Not to Worry. I Say Otherwise!

After a very cursory scan of the document (48 pages) I came across a couple of sections that give relief but do little to allay my fear and skepticism about campaign finance reform. You see the document does state a private citizen blogging does not constitute an expenditure, but I am sure there is a lawyer somewhere who will someday (sooner than one would think) convince a judge that some poor schmuck out there blogging away is in violation of the BCFRA.

Sharp as a Marble sums it up really well.

The party that wants to defend the sanctitity of marriage refuses to acknowledge it when a woman entrusts her wishes to her husband.

The party that wants government out of people's lives just convened an emergency session of Congress to butt into one woman's life.

The party that most rails against "activist judges" has just reset the process for the parents to ask the judicial system to review and re-review this case yet again until they get the results they want.

The party that says that thirteen years of UN Sanctions are not a rush to war thinks that seven years of constant court battles is a rush to let someone die.

Point 1. Since when does spousal privilege allow a husband to murder a wife?

Point 2. To save that life. Government is entrusted to protect our civil rights and when those rights are not adequately protected then the government must step in.

Point 3. That plan really worked, did it not? Not to mention the misrepresentation of the law. The Terri law ordered the federal courts to conduct a NEW review of the facts of the case, not how to decide it. I keep coming back to the same point this is something capital criminals get as a matter of fact.

Point 4. Is plain silliness. Once Terri is gone she is gone, all that is being asked is the same thing any convicted capital criminal gets a further review of their case.

Sharp as a Marble talks about his libertarianism. One thing I often find about libertarians is they are all about themselves.

Mickey Kaus Slams the Schiavo Polls!

This means the polls ABC presents is serious bad. Wake up people we are not being told the straight story. I hear reports now that cops are guarding Terri to make sure she doesn't get controlled substances. Who'ld thunk food and water are now controlled substances!

More Post Crescent Opinion Criticisms.

The first letter comes from a man with a terminal illness. While he has my sympathy and prayers he must know Terri's condition is not terminal it is just inconvenient because her continued life keeps money from Michael.

One important issue here is people who can’t let go, and thus subject their daughter Terri, to something most people wouldn’t wish on anyone. I’m sure they mean well, but keeping her alive just may be selfish. Terri is alive and this is a repetition of night is day. Sir, your condition is terminal and you have made all due preparations for your fate. Your situation is completely different. Terri is not terminal and is only in that state by a deliberate act, the act of starvation.

The second note:Regretfully, Ms. Schiavo’s heart-wrenching plight has been exploited and manipulated to such a horrific state that it has become very difficult for any of us to define the quality of her existence. Yet every shred of credible medical evidence emphasizes the impossibility of her recovery from such a state.

Again the grip of the MSM on this case. Doctors with differing opinions, nurses who have sworn they have seen evidence of abuse, have seen evidence contrary to the MSM line are not allowed to tell their stories. Death with dignity yes, but when its time has come. In this case death is being deliberately brought on.

I assign eight-ball status to neither of these readers since I do detect a level of sincerity and seriousness of argument that Mr. Calder throws over the side like a pail of garbage. These are people who think they are acting in the best interests of Ms. Schiavo and not trying to use Terri to denigrate his political opponents.

Dave Hanson Opposed to the First Amendment.

In the letter he uses weasel words to disguise what he is talking about: According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, of the estimated $6.65 million that outside groups spent, about $4.3 million of that was spent on un-regulated issue ads [emphasis added] — ads that deceive voters and are funded with illegal corporate money.

"Un-regulated issue ads" get it? This is not free speech he is talking about but "un-regularted issue ads". Unfortunately the MSM has fallen in love with those words so with the likes of McCain-Feingold on the federal level people like Dave Hanson and Michael Ellis are working to squelch our free speech even further. Perhaps Mr. Hanson's ideas will even muzzle us bloggers too.

The First Amendment is not just about George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words! Oppose campaign finance reform!

GOP Bloggers reports:

On an execution stay. The hangup appears to be fourteen years ago the judge was unclear about the instructions given to the jury.

Like I have said we value murderers more than the disabled. Pretty soon we will value murderers more than the retarded (unless the the retarded person murders then they earn good standing in society). I pity this nation.